


Pesterstuck: Act 2

by curiousDeviator



Series: Pesterstuck [3]
Category: Homestuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-11-29 21:14:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11449158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curiousDeviator/pseuds/curiousDeviator
Summary: Here we go boyos





	1. John: Quit your scrambling

**Author's Note:**

> yeaaaaaaaap  
> Down the rabbit hole we go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT:   
> http://www.mspaintadventures.com/index.php?s=6&p=002156   
> http://www.mspaintadventures.com/index.php?s=6&p=002168   
> oops I forgot to put these in.

There’s a voicemail message for you. “John? Are you there?” There’s several minutes of silence before Rose seems to notice that she’s recording a message. The audio then clicks off and a message shows up on the screen, showing that Rose was now idle.

You slide into your chair waving at the webcam. “Hey, yeah. I'm here! And not dead. I think.”

Nary a second passes before the video snaps on and you can see Rose’s face in the monitor. Though she’s clearly trying to project an air of careful nonchalance, the worry shows in her eyebrows and nervous hand twitches. “I know.” To quiet the fidgeting in her traitorous hands she flips her hair. “I've been watching you scramble through the house like a lunatic. You should have answered me sooner.”

You sigh, deciding to drop the whole worry thing for now. “Oh man, sorry, I was looking around for my dad and I can't find him anywhere! Have you seen him?”

Rose taps her chin, curious. “No. I’m sure he’ll turn up.” She really wasn’t. But John didn’t need to know that. “We have more important things to address right now.” Changing the subject again.

“Yeah, like where am I?” You say. Even though you did all that scrambling around it would still be nice to get an outside perspective on the whole mess.

Rose steeples her fingers on the desk. “I don't know that either. But I've determined your neighborhood was destroyed by the meteor. Wherever you were transported, it saved you from the impact. I've been reading reports in the news. Over the last few days, there have been many smaller meteor collisions with people's homes around the world. And they seem to be getting bigger. Yours was the biggest they've identified so far.” So everyone thinks your entire neighborhood is dead. Well, they’re at least ninety percent correct so you can’t blame them.

“Wow, ok. So then i guess if this is all the game's doing, then the point is for us to save the world?” Did those words just come out of your mouth. You guess you sort of believe them. Sort of. Though you don’t know quite how you can help from… wherever you are.

Rose looks unconvinced. “Perhaps.”

You smile, trying to convince yourself. “Then we'd better get moving and figure this game out!” You begin to get out of your chair.

“Yes, but wait. We should retrieve your PDA. Yet again.” Oh. Yeah. Smart. “It will help to keep tabs on each other while you investigate. I think I can get you closer to it, if I can replenish our grist supply somewhat. There may be a way to recycle some that we already used.”  
You nod and make the ok symbol with your left hand.

“I'll meet you out on the balcony.” She moves to shut off the video chat.

“Wait, Rose! One thing.” 

She smiles and tilts her head. “What?”

You smile wide and say,  “You never even wished me a happy birthday!”

And she mutes herself though you can see her laughing a little. “Um... hello?” You say, waving at the camera as she starts to talk. You tell her she’s still muted and she snickers and clicks unmute. 

“I was working on something to send you, but I was running late with it. I didn't want you to think I believed meager well wishes alone would suffice for the occasion.” She moves her head side to side thinking. “That said, Happy Birthday, John.”

Such a simple wish sounds so weird coming from Rose, the master of prose, virtuoso of words. “Oh jeez, that is silly! Anyway, thanks!” You wave goodbye, grinning, and shut off the video. The screen goes dark.

Several things happen in quick succession for you to retrive your PDA. First, Rose looks like she’s figured out how to ‘recycle’ objects alchemized from the server platform. Then, the precarious pass, almost like a diving board over the unknown. A voice in your head that had been insulting you all throughout your scurrying had to finally relent on trying to get you to run across the potentially deadly piece of concrete before you could go within range for Rose to grab it. She launches it at you and you catch it, almost fumbling it. 

Rose appears on the screen. “John, are you ok? You seem a bit tentative.” You realize you’ve been bouncing back and forth on your toes in the same place. 

“I'm fine i guess.” You shrug, rubbing the back of your neck. “Since I got here I feel compelled to do these weird things I don't really want to do.” You make a weird face, trying to explain it. “By some kind of voice that I can't really even hear. I don't know, it is hard to explain.”

“Perhaps the early symptoms of an anxiety disorder, like post-traumatic stress?”

You. Honestly can’t tell whether it’s a joke or not. Rose’s level of deadpan is beyond you at this point. You settle for a neutral answer.  “Yeah, maybe. who knows!” Absolute silence for a couple minutes.

Rose sighs and messes with a bit of yarn on her desk. “Well, if you can pull yourself together, there are a few more things we should try. Like prototyping the Kernelsprite again, if possible.” She taps her fingers on her desk glaring at something in the top right of her screen. “We should hurry. My laptop battery won't last forever.”

You make a joke about the Great Rose Lalonde being afraid, and exchange banter for a few moments. Super productive use of your time yep that’s what you’re supposed to do.

“Ok. I will go back inside.” Rose wishes you luck and mutes herself.


	2. John: Prototype Tier 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shenanigans. Since when were there shenanigans?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://www.mspaintadventures.com/index.php?s=6&p=002175   
> http://www.mspaintadventures.com/index.php?s=6&p=002178   
> http://www.mspaintadventures.com/index.php?s=6&p=002183

Prototyping. You’re not sure why it’s necessary or what it is, but Rose seems dead set on it. You return to the kitchen to allow a larger range of items to be within your server player’s easy reach. She grabs, of all things, a Betty Crocker brownie mix.

“What? Oh man, you're going to use that?” You can’t keep the frustration out of your voice. “That sucks, what a stupid idea!” Rose is far from stupid, you know that. You hope she won’t take this personally.

Her face flickers on screen. “We have to hurry along. I'm running low on battery power.” 

“But the cake mix... ugh, that's so dumb.” You groan. Yes, you realize this is a game of life and death. Yes, you realize that it doesn’t matt-

“I doubt it matters.” EXACTLY. Except you can’t quite stomach the idea of the product of such a heinous figure as the batterwitch factoring into your adventure in any way shape or form. “We might as well just use any old crap lying around.”

You sigh in defeat. None can withstand the awesome power of Rose Lalonde’s logic. “Fine. I  _ guess _ ”

Rose, or the cursor, tries to catch the wily harlequinsprite with the cake mix. Sounds of frustration emanate from the PDA until she realizes her audio is still on. Muted. Her efforts bear no fruit and a giggle is the only response. As silly as the sprite is you can at least respect its irrational hatred of Betty Crocker. Not that your hatred is irrational. It’s perfectly rational. Yep.

While you’re zoning out thinking of your revenge on the batterwitch, Rose has tried several other items. You zone back in just in time to see the green cursor begin to lift Colonel Sassacre’s giant masterpiece of a text.

You are instantly enthused. “Oh yes! Sweet! Now we're talking!” You make a fist pump. Was that cool? Dave would approve.

Rose rolls her eyes. “See if you can distract it. I'll try to sneak up on it.”

You wave your arms around and hop up and down. The sprite finds your distracting antics quite distracting. The book approaches from behind. Just as Rose drops it the damn thing darts away. You have to dodge quickly to keep the giant book from crushing you. Seriously, that thing could kill a cat. In the other room, the sound of an urn tipping is audible. Though you’re too busy high pitched shrieking at how close you were to death by Sassacre. Rose eventually calms you down. The sprite is nowhere to be found. After some scurrying you finally speak calmly.

“Aw man, where'd it go?”

Rose is silent for a while, clicking around the house evidently. “I can't find it anywhere in the house.” She sits back, shrugging. “No time to worry about it.”

Immediately leaning back forward, she continues. “The next thing we should do is get your server copy of the game from the car. You need to connect to my client, so I can repeat your steps and presumably join you, wherever you are.” A glimmer of fire behind her. “We should do this quickly, before my house burns down.”

Wait. What? “What, there's a fire?” Oh god time to panic.

Rose looks completely and utterly unconcerned. “There will be soon.”

“Oh jeez!” Well that’s fine. You can be nervous for the both of you. You rock back and forth on your heels with worry.”So move this thing already!” 

The cruxtruder flashes red a few times as the cursor tries to change its location. Rose makes another huff in frustration. “It looks like it requires a lot of grist to move.” You open your mouth to suggest something else before she cuts you off. “I don't have enough to relocate the door, either.” Mind reader.

“How much do you have?”

“Zero.”

“...oh. Hmm.” You don’t want to suggest it but, if nothing else is possible…  “I thought about jumping to the car from the ledge earlier…  But that sounds really dangerous!”

Rose has been silent throughout your talking. Thinking. She smirks in self satisfaction, holding up a finger. “I have a better idea. Meet me upstairs.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah Rose my savior, perfect grammar and punctuation. So damn helpful.


End file.
